IEA Bioenergy workshop: Political and regulatory issues related to Bio-CC(U)S

Date 16th Jan, 2018 - 16th Jan, 2018

Location Albert Borschette Congress Center, Brussels, Belgium

The IEA Bioenergy Task 41 Special Project on Bio-CCS and Bio-CCU is organising a workshop in cooperation with the Directorate General of the European Commission on market and regulatory issues related to Bio-CC(U)S.

Over the last three years we have seen a reduction in global CO2 emissions, mainly due to boosted implementation of renewable energy and actions taken as a result of the Paris Agreement. However, this positive trend is expected to reverse and total global CO2 emissions are projected to increase to around 2% by the end of this year. The targets set out by the Paris Agreement are stringent; limiting global temperature increase to 2°C while striving for 1.5°C and turning the world climate neutral during the latter half of this century. In order to reach these targets in such a short time frame is at best challenging. Both the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) call for solutions that lead to near-zero and negative emissions in order to reach these targets

Currently, capture and permanent underground storage of biogenic CO2 (Bio-CCS) is the only technology that can provide negative CO2 emissions by extracting CO2 from the atmosphere on a large scale. In the current EU ETS biogenic CO2 emissions are recognized as neutral, which excludes for instance the forest industry sector from the emission trading system. Recognizing permanently stored biogenic CO2 emissions as negative, on the other hand, could incentivize the implementation of Bio-CCS and thus spur the overall implementation of CCS as a climate mitigation tool

Utilisation of biogenic CO2 (Bio-CCU) does not have a direct GHG impact, but in the long run Bio-CCU could enable a more rapid electrification of carbon intensive industry and transport sectors. This again could lead to a system level reduction of CO2 emissions, especially if additional renewable electricity is used in CO2 conversion and thus introduced to the energy system. One of the major obstacles to enable sustainable Bio-CCU is the electricity source, which in practice dictates the CO2 emissions from Bio-CCU. As a result, sustainable Bio-CCU will be dependent on how the CO2 emissions from electricity generation are calculated.

The IEA Bioenergy Special Project on Bio-CCS and Bio-CCU in cooperation with the Directorate General of the European Commission is organising this workshop to address the political and regulatory issues related to large-scale industrial implementation of Bio-CC(U)S as a climate mitigating tool. The whole-day workshop will feature speakers from industry, policymaking, research and NGO’s allocated to four sessions; Background and introduction, Policy perspectives, Bio-CCS, and Bio-CCU. The workshop will be rounded off with a panel discussion.

The workshop is free of charge, but places are limited and registration is made on a first come, first serve basis. Please register through the link to secure your place.